McAfee’s new chief comes out fighting

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Dave DeWalt trumpets online security group’s “noble cause” – but his first task is to deal with an ignoble options scandal

Two weeks into his new job as the boss of McAfee, the $5 billion internet security giant, Dave DeWalt describes how he likes to tell people he has moved to a company with a “noble cause ? we stop bad guys”.

Before the evangelising begins in earnest, however, Mr DeWalt, 44, the fourth chief executive at McAfee in six years, has to deal with the company’s ignoble immediate past.

Last year McAfee became one of the highest-profile companies to be sucked into the stock options backdating scandal that has sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and beyond.